Cinema as both mythology and history, as both liberated by dream logic yet bound up with material reality; as the delight and fantasy of the Belle Epoque is undercut by portents of doom. An ode to and an interrogation of the Lumière brothers, riffing on their imagery in the hopes of discovering something new or even elemental to the film medium. As well, a celebration of the ways in which these films encapsulate the magical intersection of the archives, geography, and history.